Treering Blog

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook adviser tips and tricks.

Mom of triplets and one of Treering’s sales directors, Ansley Cheatham, fell into yearbook advising at Augusta Circle Elementary School after knowing she wanted to be involved at her children’s school. But what she didn’t know is that she would also fall in love with yearbook creation.

As soon as Ansley’s three boys headed to kindergarten, she started looking for a way to become involved with the PTA and was asked to assist with the yearbook. As some of you readers may know, the yearbook adviser role can be a challenging position to fill, but Ansley was all in.  

To date, Ansley has made five yearbooks for Augusta Circle, each creatively capturing the school year they represented. And while all the yearbooks hold a special place in Ansley’s and the elementary school’s heart, the 2020-21 yearbook was unique and challenging in a different way.

Learn more about Ansley’s journey creating a yearbook this past school year. 

How do you think COVID-19 impacted your yearbook and yearbooks across the country?

At Augusta Circle, we were lucky to go back to school safely in October, but it looked different than any other year. I wanted to be sure to highlight that in our yearbook in a way elementary students could understand and remember in a positive way.  The pictures weren’t what you were used to seeing in a yearbook, but I think that was part of its charm! In all of our group photos, our kids were wearing their masks. If the kids were alone, they didn’t have to have a mask on, so we had a lot more solo pictures as well.  

The hardest part was that I couldn’t go inside the school to take pictures like usual. I had to rely on teachers and parents to submit them to me. Treering has an app that many parents used to quickly drop into my collection and most of the teachers used Google Photos. I also pulled a lot directly from Instagram into the book. The process was so easy that I will actually use the same one next year, even if I am allowed in the building!

In addition, I had my son, who is in 4th grade, write a summary of the year from a child’s perspective.  Describing what was different, e-learning, wearing masks, and how the kids adapted. He also talked about things that were new to our entire culture; defining words like “social distancing” and sports teams playing with cardboard cutouts for fans. He detailed things that all the kids will want to look back on and maybe show their own kids one day!

What is one of your favorite parts of your yearbook this school year?

One of my favorite parts in our yearbook is in our fifth-grade quote section. We asked them all, “Where do you see yourself in 20 years?” The responses are so much fun to read! We had future NFL stars, doctors, interior designers and vets to name a few. It’s a great addition to our yearbook and I know the students will love to look back on it when they are older and laugh at what they wanted to be in fifth-grade!

What is something you think is fun about your yearbook that makes it different?

Every year we hold a cover contest! Kids are so creative and we get so many fabulous submissions! This is one of the ways students feel like they were involved in the yearbook process since we don’t have a yearbook club. It’s special to our school and makes each book unique and nothing like any other yearbook across the country – it speaks to us and our students.

We also sell celebration ads to parents. The parents design them on Treering’s website, drop in their own pictures and write sweet messages, quotes or something special to their child. They look so good when they all come together in the book, plus they are unique and personalized!

All That and a Bag of Chips

We started the night Clueless about yearbooks, and then with a Full House on October 6, 2021, we got Jiggy Wit It: from theme brainstorms to marketing plans, and photo and collaboration tips in between, this is how we do it!

Watch our first-ever live training event for five questions to help develop your theme. Also, you’ll hear actionable ideas to get more photos from your community as well as how to get more yearbooks in more people’s hands. Lastly, learn to take one subject and get eight photographs.

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook adviser tips and tricks.

Driven: just one of the sweetest words used to describe the diligent students at Langston Hughes High School in Fairburn, Georgia. These words came straight from former graphic design teacher, adviser, and yearbook manager Deja Rolle (who is pretty driven herself, if we do say so ourselves). As a first year Treering user, Deja wanted to show the perseverance of her students throughout the challenging pandemic in this year’s yearbook.

Deja, like yearbook coordinators everywhere, knew the importance of capturing the true essence of the school year with its in-person, virtual and hybrid formats. Once Deja heard about Treering and how it gives schools the flexibility to create custom yearbooks, using collaborative tools without the constraints of deadlines, she knew it would assist in producing a unique yearbook (alley-oop for us).

Langston Hughes High School students showed their perseverance to create an inclusive yearbook. Deja, with Treering’s assistance, was able to preserve this special show of character in an unpredictable year. 

Learn more about how Deja showcased the students of Langston Hughes High School in their yearbook.

What led to you creating this past year’s yearbook with Treering?

Just like nearly every school last year, there were a variety of new challenges that came with the pandemic—and the possibility of not having a yearbook was one of them. As the school year continued, I knew someone had to take responsibility to summarize the scope of the year during COVID-19. And I knew it had to be me. I love these students and I just couldn’t take the thought of not celebrating them.

While brainstorming the best way to capture this school year, I came across Treering, which allowed me to be flexible and unique with the way I formatted the yearbook.

How did the LHHS’s students handle this past school year (2020-2021)?

If the pandemic revealed anything about our students, it’s how amazing they are, their passion for success and their entrepreneurial spirit. A lot of our students stepped up to the plate when their families needed help this year and have the proof to show it. There were a slew of entrepreneurs this year who sold all kinds of products including masks, earrings, hair wraps, clothes, etc. 

Also, our students not only brought income into their families, but some even used their time at home to pursue associate degrees. In our yearbook this past school year, we had two whole pages dedicated to students who were able to receive their associate degree while graduating from LHHS! All the students' work just drives my passion to see our students succeed.

What made this past yearbook stand out from the others?

Last school year was just crazy—everything stands out! It was so different from anything the students or I had ever experienced and will probably never experience anything quite like it again, I hope. I had to capture that in the yearbook. Since lessons were being taught in three formats, I really wanted everyone to feel included whether it was a photo submitted of their virtual workspace or text quotes from the seniors. This book really aims to capture ALL, I want to repeat ALL the students and their stories. Every year, we include everyone and their story, but what stood out the most this year was how much work it was to include everyone. 

Also, in this year’s class pictures, our students had the freedom and choice of what they wanted to be showcased, which I think was a little more fun for the students. Depending on preference, we had students submit their own portraits while others submitted selfies! This allowed our students to choose the picture they wanted to present of themselves rather than the school choosing. 

Deja Rolle now teaches at the STEM School Global Impact Academy.

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook adviser tips and tricks.

David Graeve is a professional artist and full-time teacher at Houston’s Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory School. As a need-based school, Cristo Rey Jesuit offers a rigorous college preparatory education that’s available to students from low-income families in the Houston area. With the pandemic and uncertainty of in-person education, Yearbook Hero David took it upon himself to identify new and innovative ways to teach students remotely while also addressing individual learning styles and needs. 

As an 11th- and 12th-grade teacher to a diverse student body—80% Latino and 20% Black—David understands the importance of preparing students for the future and exposing them to different career paths. With their yearbook creation positioned as a club at the school, the yearbook turned into the perfect tool to highlight these different career opportunities. 

Learn more about how David used yearbook creation to teach his students, many from low-income families, valuable workforce skills.

How have you used Treering Yearbooks to teach students skills they can use after high school?

Treering offers so many valuable skills for my students: skills like graphic design, marketing and communicating with customer support. These are all skills that are incredibly valuable and beneficial to life after high school. If one of my students encountered any kind of hiccup with the software this past year, I encouraged them to contact customer support on their own. Fortunately, the Treering team made this option very accessible and ultimately taught my students the importance of taking initiative and problem solving. The customer support through Treering has been fantastic. 

With Treering’s software, building the yearbook is quite easy for my students and many of them built the pages from scratch last year. This encouraged them to be creative and pursue their passions. For my students that weren’t aware of marketing or graphic design careers, yearbook creation really opened their eyes to those possibilities. 

In addition to unique skill sets, what else do you think your students learned this past year through yearbook creation?

COVID-19 truly taught my students the value of capturing real-life moments. Much of the Latino community in Houston has 2-3 family generations living under one room. This past year’s yearbook showcases so many family moments - more than any other yearbook we’ve had in the past. So although the pandemic brought forth a lot of hardship, it also brought many families closer together. I’ve seen a lot of pride shine through my students in that they’ve been able to capture those moments. 

What would you say has been the best part of using Treering this past year?

Its easy-to-use platform has taught my students how skills in the classroom can be used later on in the workforce. And how those skills - many of which have proven to be very enjoyable for them - can help them reach financial independence. I look forward to the next year in continuing our use of Treering to build onto these workforce skills. All of my students learn differently - some thrive better in the classroom while others perform better online. As a teacher, the pandemic has really shed light on the different learning styles and how we can work with different tools to ensure all students thrive. Even with the pandemic this past year, it’s critical to continue to arm our students with the skillsets they’ll need to flourish in the workforce. 

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook adviser tips and tricks.

The understatement of the year: the pandemic has drastically changed things for many people, especially for teachers and their students. Teachers re-created their pedagogy. They worked to not only remain positive for their own mental health, but also as a example to their students. And then there were the ongoing uncertainties. One yearbook adviser modeled a semblance of normalcy through her yearbook program.

Meet Joy Halverson, a P.E. instructor at Aliso Viejo's Journey School, a public charter school for grades K-8 in Orange County, California. Joy has been teaching at Journey School for 20 years, and her kids attended there too. The school has always been a unique, art-centered school that prides itself on its students’ contributions to creating a more sustainable world. With the pandemic, though, many students did schoolwork completely remote or only came in a few times a week.

Joy was eager to find a way to capture the year in an environmentally-friendly and memorable way and did so through a customizable yearbook via Treering. Below are tips about how Joy captured this non-traditional year in Journey School’s yearbook.

How did the pandemic affect the yearbook advising process for Journey School?

With so many students working from home, there were changes that needed to be made in order to truly capture their lives this past year. I’m a creative person at heart, so I wanted to ensure that the yearbook reflected the many ways our students pivoted, showed grit, learned, and still managed to have fun.

Fortunately with Treering, I was able to continue making the yearbook from home. The book captures each student’s memories from this past year so that years from now, they’ll look back and see all that they accomplished despite the obstacles thrown our way.

What advising tips do you have for getting creative in capturing student memories in the yearbook?

For starters, I took 1,600 screenshots of each student to build out their portrait pages. Needless to say, I really perfected the art of taking screenshots! Parents also submitted events from home that were taken throughout the year, such as their kids in Halloween costumes, knitting projects, and more.

As a P.E. teacher and the owner of Circus Joy, it’s in my nature to want to find ways to keep students moving, even if it’s through a screen. During my typical in-person P.E. classes, I would often teach juggling to my students. So when transitioning to teaching juggling through virtual learning, it created some pretty unique opportunities to capture fun screenshots for the yearbook.

While it’s not always easy to learn new P.E. skills through Zoom, it’s still possible if you have the right attitude. And my students truly persevered this year.

At the end of the day, the memories the students have of this past year deserve to be documented. And I find it so fulfilling to help make this yearbook possible for them.

What do you hope students have learned from this past year and how is that reflected in the yearbook?

This yearbook will be a true reflection of the school year. So many unique moments were captured, including students wearing “we’re on mute” and “oops, you’re frozen” printed t-shirts. From the circus classes we captured on Zoom to the many fun screenshots, I know that this book will hold so much value for years to come. The K-8 students will eventually grow older and have their own families. This book, although different from any other year, will showcase all they’ve done. And that makes the yearbook making process worth it.

Whether you're excited to get the kids out of the house and into the classroom or kind of dreading the hussle that back-to-school season brings, another year is here! Fear not, we’ve got your yearbook back, cover, custom pages, and everything in between. We’re a yearbook company after all! The first six weeks of school are the best time to set up your yearbook for success.

This might sound overwhelming given you already have to absorb a million new routines, teachers, rules, and other back-to-school rituals, so we’ve simplified it to 5 simple steps to yearbook success this school year.

Set the Yearbook's Tone: Enthusiasm is Contagious

The first six weeks of school are when everyone is ready to take photos. Welcome back Moma-razzi! It’s a new year, with new friends, new teachers, and new pencils. Bringing this energy into the yearbook can set the tone for the entire year (with rough patches, obviously. We’re all human). The more excited you are to start the book, take and collect photos, the more excited everyone around you will be. Enthusiasm is contagious and engagement is demonstrated by leaders. If the yearbook editor and/or committee is excited, then it’s way more likely everyone else will join in.

Be in the Know: Reboot Your Inner Gossip Girl

Ok so maybe not exactly like the Gossip Girl reboot, but you get the idea. If you’re editing the yearbook, this is the time to know what’s going on. Since most yearbooks show the year in chronological order, be prepared for the first day of school photo opportunities like the car line, opening assembly, and bus drop-offs. You can even reach out to teachers (who are yearbook editors’ best friends) and try to either get inside a couple classrooms for first-day activities or ask them to share all the amazing photos from the day.

You’ll want to know all the back-to-school plans from the school —including the PTA calendar of events. Once you’re in the know, you can work with other parents and/or teachers to take some photos so you don’t feel like you have to be everywhere. If you’re working with students in yearbook creation, make sure you’re in the know about what you’re going to be teaching with an updated staff syllabus and curriculum.

K.I.S.S.: Keep it Simple Silly

Alright, you’re excited and you know what’s going on the first day of school! You’re almost ready for a fantastic year of yearbooking fun, but we highly recommend getting ready for yearbook by setting up an easy photo system for contributors, whether they are coming from teachers, parents or students. Yearbook can be hard and stressful, so that’s why setting up a system where parents can upload pictures, like a Google Drive, or using a hashtag that’s specific to your school can be beneficial. By using a hashtag, you can tell parents that if they use it, it gives yearbook staff permission to use the photo. This can really take some of the burden off. Your unique hashtag can help you categorize the photos, and, since we’re all on social media these days, possibly get more photos than past years.

Another easy system to think about: Set up a regular posting cadence on the parent Facebook page, PTA group or the school’s main social media to encourage anyone with great photos to submit to the yearbook. Setting a realistic schedule up front makes it easier to stick to, and contributors get used to hearing from you. Starting a bi-weekly schedule up front instead of reaching out after the first six weeks of school will likely result in more photos. After all, it’s a lot less intimidating to send a couple photos at a time versus the “photo dump” some parents or teachers may have from the first six weeks.

Pay Attention to Your Yearbook Provider: They're Your Friends

Pay attention to “getting started” emails from your trusty yearbook company friends. The friendly yearbook companies - the ones with excellent customer service, not to name any names - will help you get your yearbook started, you just have to pay attention. Keep an eye out for email blasts to help kick off yearbook creation by walking advisers through back-end aspects of yearbooking. (Yes, it IS a verb!) Depending on what you’re looking for, you can get a mini-course on how to create a yearbook, more advanced design resources, marketing assistance and more. For a #MarketingMoment, brainstorm with your yearbook team on capturing your theme in your group photo. For example, if your theme is an anniversary book, you may want to photograph each member with a past yearbook. Another #MarketingMoment idea: Hype up your last yearbook to the PTA, students and teachers, and sprinkle in all the new plans you have for the first six weeks to build excitement!

Find Your Yearbook Crew: Even if it’s Just One Other Parent

Finding someone that can help you manage shot lists, reach out to teachers and come up with ideas is so important. As you know, and it bears repeating, yearbook is a lot, but it’s also a treasure for kids growing up. That’s what’s most important and what makes getting involved so worth it.

Food-for-thought on where and how to get involved:

Get in with the teachers. Classrooms can become like second homes to students, and their teacher is always there - that’s why they’re your best friend for photos. Ask to bring food and drinks to a staff meeting in exchange for 15 minutes to talk about the yearbook. Give teachers and administrators easy blurbs, talking points and material about the yearbook to include all of their back to school communications. There are some teachers who will not allow us to pull kids for interviews EVER, and some who prefer the first or last 15 minutes of class, so be prepared.

Start a "gotcha!" list. Using the early enrollment roster from the front office, make a card for each student with their name and grade. Once a week or so, go through your coverage report/index and mark off the students you’ve captured. Set a goal to interview or photograph every student at least three times with questions of the day or activities they’re involved in.

Celebrate! Set easy wins to give yourself, your crew, the PTA or school a reason to celebrate. Oh, you received 50 photos from the first day? BAM! Let’s go get dinner. This classroom submitted the most photos after the first six weeks of school? BAM! Reward that teacher and students with a little prize. Even small milestones deserve a celebration, and each celebration will motivate more people to participate.

Have questions on how to start building a better yearbook? Check out our Help Center for customer support.

As the end of the school year approaches and yearbooks get delivered, it’s the perfect time to throw a yearbook party. What better way to remember the year than to go through your yearbook and host a signing party?! We know when it comes to throwing a school party that everyone just thinks of one thing – pizza – but yours can be so much more. A class party should be about celebrating and making memories, not just eating food (to be honest food is always the first thing that pops into my mind, but I digress).

As this year has been so different, we wanted to make sure you had some ideas on how to celebrate the memories made in the yearbook, whether you were in school or virtual, and for students who bought a yearbook or not. If this year taught us anything, it's that you have to find the time to be present and live for the moment - celebrate with one another. Social distancing can, in fact, be social!

Here are a few in-school party ideas: 

Throw a Blast From the Past Party

As a parent volunteer or teacher, there are a lot of ways you can take your students back in time. So when you’re ready to throw your yearbook party, set the scene by printing out some fun pictures you’ve taken throughout the year and hang them around the room. Or, if you’ve kept any previous party decor from other celebrations like Halloween or pie day, you can create themes throughout the room to reflect the year that has passed. Decorating the room with old photos and decorations is a great way to remind your students of all the good times and bonus, you get to recycle old projects, while keeping party expenses down!

To liven up the party and get the students excited, have them bring in their favorite projects of the year to reminisce on all the great things they’ve learned. This party will encompass all the memories from the yearbook, the decorations, and even their learning experiences. While all the fun is happening, students can sign yearbooks and share something nice about each project they brought in. 

If you can, really blast to the past by bringing each student in fake feather quill pens for them to sign each other’s yearbook. 

Host Pop-Con with Popcorn 

A fun way to throw a party in the classroom is to get students involved in a craft and whether they bought a yearbook or not, throwing a yearbook party is about celebrating memories and making more. A similar craft to a yearbook that elementary students can make is a comic strip! Give each student some time to go through the yearbook and then celebrate by letting them create their own mini-book or comic strip of their favorite school-year memory. Letting them create this craft on their own will help them develop mentally, socially, and emotionally.

And everyone loves a good play on words, so add some popcorn for everyone to enjoy while they make their Pop-Con comics! Even if you still have to be socially distant, separate the popcorn in individual cups or baggies. After everyone has enjoyed their popcorn and drawn their comic, have them go around the party and sign their yearbooks (or comic strips) as they chat about all the good times. This party gives all the students an additional souvenir of the year and more fond memories of their classmates. 

Make a Magnet Memory 

If you work in the classroom, you know students love to bring something home to show off. This yearbook party, which involves making a mini book magnet, creates another memento for students to bring home celebrating their year – just like the yearbook. You’ll need some more supplies for this craft including a hot glue gun and magnets. Similar to the last craft, start your party off by letting the students explore the yearbook to find what memory they want to recreate. Provide 3x4” cardstock paper for students to fold and draw pictures of recess, lunch time, masks or anything else that sparks excitement. 

After the students get their time to cut out and color a little mini book, let them sign their mini yearbook and send them around with their own pens to sign everyone else's real-sized yearbook. Make sure everyone turns in their drawing, so you can glue the magnets on and return their crafts before summer break.

This party ensures all students have a memento for the year!

For those celebrating the end of the year virtually, here are a few remote party ideas: 

Throw a Yearbook Reveal Party 

When you’re celebrating school milestones virtually, it can be tricky. But a fun way to experience the yearbook is to reveal it! Using Zoom or another platform, take your students through each page of the yearbook, almost as if you are reading a story aloud. Another way to liven a yearbook reveal party is to have a surprise guest come in to share a few pages. You could use someone like the principal or another teacher as long as your school’s guidelines permit. 

Give the students time to see each page, comment on its contents and share excitement about the inclusivity of themselves and their classmates, which will likely be the pages they love most. If you throw any kind of contest for your students’ drawing to be on, give them a shoutout. Some yearbook companies even have features that allow you to sign yearbooks digitally, which is definitely a perk with schools having to do many things virtually this past year.  

This year was a challenging one that resulted in many unique moments for students. Because of this,  the yearbook will be looked at for many years to come. Take time to celebrate the fact you and your students have made it! Congrats Students, teachers, and parents... you did it!

You probably know by now that a good yearbook superlatives list is enough to get your whole school talking. But you know what really get your readers to crack some smiles? Teacher superlatives. While many schools have traditions of turning their faculty portrait pages into light-hearted affairs, nothing gets your teachers and faculty a spotlight in the yearbook quite like an awards or superlatives section just for them. And for good reason: They’re an opportunity to celebrate the hard work and dedication teachers put into the school year while giving a nod to the character traits and quirks that make your faculty so memorable. (Plus, nothing beats the feeling you’ll get when you’re able hand a superlative certificate to the winner of “Most likely to win a rap battle.”) It doesn’t matter if teacher superlatives are voted on by students or by faculty themselves, if they’re straight-up funny or just plain interesting, this is a feature that’s hard not to love. Read on, as we unveil our list of 35 teacher superlatives ideas and tips for writing your own.

35 Super Awesome Teacher Superlatives

While we’ll spend some time shortly talking about how to write your own yearbook awards for teachers, we figured we would dive right in with some ready-made ideas:

• Most likely to have a new hair style/color

• Most likely to be your friend on Facebook

• Most likely to be found enjoying nature

• Most likely to bring a pet to school

• Most likely to be seen on the big screen

• Most Likely to win Jeopardy

• Most Likely to pack their bags and travel the world

• Most likely to win a rap battle

• Best advice and wisdom

• Most friendly

• Most enthusiastic

• Most likely to create world peace

• Best storyteller

• Funniest

• Most distinguishable voice

• Most school spirit

• Most Likely to Break Out in Dance

• Most Artistic

• Best Smile

• Most likely to not give weekend homework

• Most likely to have a desk full of apples

• Most likely to know the score of last night’s game

• Most Inspiring

• Most Quotable

• Most intimidating vocabulary

• Best Beard

• Best wardrobe

• Scariest death glare

• Most likely to make sarcastic comments

• Most likely to scold you and give you a detention

• Most likely to be mistaken for a student

• Most likely to scold you for eating food near the computers

• Most Likely to Be Accidentally Called Mom/Dad

• Most likely to catch a student texting in class

• Best taste in music

Of course, some of these might do the trick for your teacher superlatives and some of these might not. That’s why it’s a list of ideas. If you’re more the do-it-yourself type, we’ve got some helpful tips below on how to write your own superlatives. In either event, we’ve created a free template for you to use as you build your superlatives list. Check it out here.

Writing Your Own Yearbook Awards For Teachers

To generate your own list of teacher superlatives, sit down with your staff and begin with an old fashioned brainstorm. Starting with your existing senior superlatives list or yearbook awards list makes the most sense, so simply reframe your list of superlatives so that they’re teacher focused. For example, “Class Clown” becomes “Funniest Teacher” and “Teacher’s Pet” becomes “Favorite Teacher.” A lot of the same rules apply to yearbook awards for teachers as they do for students, especially if you’re trying to write funny superlatives: Which teachers are fair game? Are the superlatives funny? Or are they mean? It can be a fine line, so be careful and get a second opinion if you think something’s pushing it a little too far. From there, add to your list using some school-specific superlatives:Does someone embody school spirit like no other? Do some of your school’s teachers have idiosyncrasies so well-known around the building that they’re a shoe-in for one superlative or another? As you work through the logistics of who’ll do the voting (Just faculty? Just graduating students? The whole school?), you’ll know you’ve hit the right mark when you hear the chatter start in the hallways and see the smiles creep across students’ faces. That’s because including teacher superlatives and other types of awards in your yearbook is an easy way to give special recognition to faculty—a group who help make the school year what it is, but often aren’t recognized in the yearbook.

As the student rising to the call of leadership, the teacher who is a champion of her students, or the parent hero stepping in, you should have a say in your schedule. You can work out on-demand, watch TV on-demand, why not publish on-demand? Adhering to multiple deadlines while committing to book sales and page counts is impossible when you don't even know how many events will take place this year. At Treering, we believe that schools, parents, and students should be given the flexibility and freedom to build a yearbook without the stress of ANY commitments.

Flexible Deadlines: Finish Your Book When You're Ready

With Treering there's only one deadline: the day you want to finish your book. Three weeks from that day, your books will arrive to your students. Period. Want to change that date, no problem. The date can be moved at any time, to any date you need. The choice is yours.

Flexible Distribution: Ship Your Yearbooks to Your School, or Directly to Each Student's Home

We offer free sorting (alphabetical, by grade, by classroom) and free bulk shipping to the school. If you want more time to capture prom or graduation, you can have the books shipped directly to each student's home for a flat-rate shipping fee. It's your choice!

Flexible Details: Decrease (or Increase) Your Pages or Even Cancel Your Book

Should something change and you need to decrease your page count, we will let you do that anytime before you hit print ready! Need to cancel your school's book altogether (we hope not), you can do that without worrying about incurring any fees. Your school never pays us anything, and your parents only pay if they decide to buy a book.

No contracts and no minimums mean no worries and no stress.

Flexible Collaboration: Collecting Content from your School is Easier than Ever!

For the sake of inclusivity and to capture all aspects of school, it's important to get photos and help from your community. (Repeat after us: "I can't do it all!") Our shared folders and mobile app make it extremely easy to collect content from your school. By making it simple for everyone to submit photos, you're guaranteed to have everything you need to build a unique book this and every year.

Flexible Designing: Thousands of Innovative Page Ideas at Your Fingertips

Complete book looks, including layouts, fonts, graphics, and color palettes, are free for all Treering customers. Don't worry, they are flexible enough that you can make them even more to your liking. You can even upload your own spreads.

When it comes to crafting memorable yearbooks, superlatives are a staple. These awards allow students to celebrate their peers in fun and lighthearted ways while preserving memories of who they were during the school year. However, the classic titles like Teacher's Pet, Most Likely to Succeed, and Class Clown—while timeless—can feel a bit overdone. That’s why we’ve curated a fresh list of over 100 yearbook superlatives that go beyond the clichés and embrace today's students' diversity, creativity, and individuality.

Senior Superlative Ideas for Any High School Yearbook

The best yearbook superlatives celebrate individuality and avoid focusing solely on physical attributes. By shifting the focus to creativity, character, and accomplishments, your yearbook can reflect the dynamic personalities of your class while creating moments of joy for everyone who flips through its pages.

And they are no longer just for your senior section. We're also seeing superlatives for elementary and middle school students plus teachers.

Superlatives For the Pop Culture Fanatics

1. Future viral sensation
2. Most likely to be verified on social media
3. Most likely to get a deal on Shark Tank
4. Next big TikTok trendsetter
5. Future Marvel hero
6. Most likely to direct an Oscar-winning film
7. Most likely to write a best-selling YA novel
8. Next reality TV star
9. Most likely to produce a Grammy-winning album
10. Most likely to host a podcast

Standouts for World-Changers

11. Future Nobel Prize winner
12. Most likely to start a nonprofit
13. Best candidate for the CIA
14. Most likely to be a UN ambassador
15. Most likely to create a greener future
16. Most likely to invent the next big thing
17. Most likely to solve world hunger
18. Most likely to lead a humanitarian mission
19. Most likely to make space travel affordable
20. Most likely to change the world through art
21. Most likely to reform the education system

The Standouts in Personality

21. Most likely to brighten your day
22. Best advice giver
23. Most likely to laugh at their own jokes
24. Best at making new friends
25. Most likely to win at trivia night
26. Most likely to remember your birthday
27. Most likely to cheer you up with a meme
28. Most likely to have a cool hobby you didn't know about
29. Most likely to be a secret genius
30. Most likely to travel the karaoke circuit

Tech & Innovation Superlatives

31. Most likely to work at a tech giant
32. Future app creator
33. Most likely to go viral on GitHub
34. Most likely to build the next social media platform
35. Most likely to win a robotics competition
36. Most likely to design a sustainable city
37. Future AI specialist
38. Most likely to lead a virtual reality revolution
39. Future cybersecurity expert
40. Most likely to write the code that changes the world
41. Most likely to build a flying car

Creative Superlatives

41. Most likely to design a fashion line
42. Future Disney Imagineer
43. Most likely to illustrate a graphic novel
44. Most likely to be a professional photographer
45. Most likely to write/produce/star in a Broadway musical
46. Future art gallery curator
47. Most likely to star in a viral dance challenge
48. Most likely to edit an award-winning film
49. Most likely to open a boutique
50. Most likely to host a DIY show

School-Spirit Leaders

51. Most likely to plan the best reunion
52. Most school spirited
53. Most likely to remember every school tradition
54. Most likely to stay involved as an alum
55. Most likely to be voted into the Hall of Fame
56. Most likely to name their pet after the mascot
57. Most likely to preserve all their yearbooks
58. Most likely to organize the class group chat
59. Most likely to wear school colors forever
60. Most likely to volunteer at every school event
61. Most likely to return as a teacher

Celebrate Explorers and Adventurers

61. Most likely to backpack around the world
62. Most likely to climb Mount Everest
63. Most likely to be on a national geographic cover
64. Most likely to travel in a tiny home
65. Most likely to road trip across America
66. Most likely to work on an antarctic research base
67. Most likely to be a wilderness survival expert
68. Most likely to discover a new species
69. Future travel blogger
70. Most likely to live on a sailboat

Humanitarian Superlatives

71. Most likely to be a first responder
72. Most likely to work in public health
73. Most likely to foster rescued animals
74. Most likely to start a free library
75. Most likely to volunteer internationally
76. Most likely to champion mental health awareness
77. Future advocate for marginalized communities
78. Most likely to win a humanitarian award
79. Most likely to organize a food drive
80. Most likely to host fundraising galas

Superlatives that Celebrate Unique Skills

81. Most likely to master a new language
82. Most likely to memorize the entire dictionary
83. Best at solving a Rubik’s cube
84. Most likely to train a pet for tv
85. Most likely to start an e-sports team
86. Most likely to be a Guinness world record holder
87. Most likely to excel at any board game
88. Most likely to master culinary arts
89. Most likely to be a pro dungeon master
90. Best at remembering random facts

Community Superlatives

91. Best neighborhood organizer
92. Most likely to run for local office
93. Most likely to open a community center
94. Most likely to start a neighborhood tradition
95. Most likely to build a successful co-op
96. Most likely to run a food truck everyone loves
97. Most likely to revitalize a downtown area
98. Most likely to be a local celebrity
99. Most likely to mentor future generations
100. Most likely to make everyone feel included

Athletic Superlatives

101. Most likely to be in the Olympics
102. Most likely to compete in the X-games
103. Most likely to coach a championship team
104. Best teammate
105. Most likely to design athleisure wear
106. Most likely to become a fitness instructor
107. Most likely to run a marathon on every continent
108. Most likely to be a sports journalist
109. Most likely to win a Superbowl/Stanley Cup/World Series/MLS Cup/NBA Championship
110. Most likely to build an inclusive sports league
111. Most likely to train the next MVP
112. Most likely to win a Heisman

How to Choose the Right Superlatives for Your School

When brainstorming yearbook superlatives, consider your school’s culture and student body. What resonates with your classmates? Are they passionate about social causes, obsessed with pop culture, or deeply involved in athletics?

Here are four tips to guide your process:

1. Survey students: Your yearbook team should come up with the categories and the student body should nominate the winners.
2. Focus on positivity: Avoid potentially negative or divisive categories.
3. Stay relevant: If you arent using your theme to determine which superlatives to offer, incorporate trends in technology, media, and culture to keep your list fresh.
4. Celebrate achievements: Recognize contributions across academics, arts, athletics, and community involvement.

Yearbook surveys and polls are a great way to get a pulse on your school community for a specific year. Not just any survey will do that, though. Your yearbook poll results will be way, way better if you ask great questions and help people give great answers. Inside this post, we’ll show you how to do just that. And, as if teaching you how to fish wasn’t enough, we’ve got Atlantic salmon on deck: over 50 of our most fantastic survey questions to get your gears turning. Read on to get them.

How to Write Yearbook Survey Questions

Yearbook survey questions should be low-stakes and, more importantly, fun. They shouldn’t relate to anything that might spark controversy or offend anyone --politics, religion, etc.-- Structurally, you want to create questions that pair obvious inquiry-based words (who, what, where, when, why, how, etc.) with a specific set of responses. Questions can range from “what was the song of the year” to “best place to buy jeans” to “snacks the cafeteria should start stocking” (though that last one could start a small riot). These are fun questions, great for putting students at ease, and building trust before asking them to share personal opinions and anecdotes. Recycling the same questions every year isn’t necessarily a bad thing (provided the list you’ve created is full of excellent options). And of course, it goes without saying, you’ll have to change the answers listed to reflect the inevitable cultural changes (hello 20-21 school year changes).

Source Multiple Choice Responses Like a Pro

You’ve got three phenomenal resources at your disposal when it comes to generating the response options for your yearbook survey questions. Let’s take a look at them:

• Last year’s book. As we mentioned earlier, re-using older questions is perfectly fine: using old response-options? Not so much. That being said, they’re a fantastic jumping off point. Maybe Justin Bieber isn’t one of the best male singers this year. Perhaps Chipotle will cede its crown as the go-to pregame dining spot.
• Your staff. You might think you’ve got your finger on the student body’s pulse, but your student staff members are infinitely more plugged in. Grab a couple of pizzas one afternoon and have a brainstorming session to come up with responses. Not only will this help craft great answers, it’ll let you find if your questions actually resonate with students.
• Social media. Simply by paying attention to what’s happening in the student version of the world you can generate oodles of survey response ideas. Look at what’s trending on Twitter or TikTok and start keeping a running list.

When it comes to good multiple choice questions, you want to make sure you limit your responses to no more than 5 choices. Any more than this and students could have a hard time selecting only one. It might also become hard to read when you transfer the results into your yearbook, thereby missing the benefit of capturing this information for your students. Now, without further adieu, here’s our list of over 50 yearbook survey questions.

Over 50 Yearbook Survey Questions For Better Polls

Perhaps the easiest way to tackle this big list of questions is to divide them up the way we divide all questions: Who, what, when, where, why, and how. The biggest reason for doing it this way? Doing so gives you a bunch of options when it comes to laying out your yearbook polls spreads. Who...

• Is the best male singer/band?
• Is the best female singer/band?
• Would you you like to see speak at graduation?
• Was the most memorable performer (student)?
• Was the best actor (professional)?
• Was the best actress (professional)?
• Had the best athletic performance (student)?
• Was your favorite professional athlete?
• Wrote the best book?
• Made you turn off the TV?

What….

• Were the biggest differences between this year and last?
• Is your favorite professional sport?
• Do you wish the cafeteria had served?
• Was the most difficult class you took?
• Was the most memorable quote?
• Subject do you wish you tried harder in?
• Food did you try for the first time?
• Genre of music was most popular?
• Word did you hear most often when roaming the halls?
• TV show was everybody talking about?
• Jingle gets stuck in your head all the time?
• Accessory can you not live without?
• Is your favorite school outfit?
• Is the weirdest trend of the year?
• Decade would you pick to grow up in?

Where...

• Did you go after prom/school?
• WOuld you like to go this summer?
• Would you most like to take a nap in school?
• Would your team go to celebrate a victory?
• Are you happiest?
• Do you like to shop?
• Is the best pizza in town?
• Should there be a field trip to?
• Would you spend a free period?
• Are the school’s most comfortable chairs?
• Did you spend most of your allowance?

When...

• Did senioritis set in?
• Did you submit college applications?
• Did you start considering what you’d like to do after graduation?
• Do you get to school in the morning?
• Did you stay up the latest?
• Are you most productive?
• Do you do your homework?
• Did you cheer the hardest (school event)?
• Was the student body most excited?
• Is it okay to stop playing Pokemon Go/scrolling TikTok?

Why...

• Should school start 30 minutes later?
• Do you want to go to college?
• Do you prefer books to screen-reading?
• Aren’t there more students on the yearbook staff?
• Did [thing] happen on [show]?

How...

• Many books have you read this year?
• Many social media platforms do you use?
• Often do you send Snaps?
• Can teachers better-use technology in the classroom?
• Should the school go about picking new electives?

Got all that? Good. Great yearbook survey questions (and great multiple choice answers) will help you elevate any polling coverage you might include in your yearbook. Even better? It’ll help you spot trends that can lead to story ideas.

When it comes to marketing your yearbook, it’s probably enough to tell some students and parents in your school that the book’s on sale. For everyone else, though, you need to work a little (and, sometimes, a lot) harder. It’s almost like you need to get in their heads. Luckily for you, we’ve got four yearbook marketing ideas that are backed by proven psychology principles. And you don’t even need a degree in that field to use ‘em. These tactics will make marketing your yearbook twice as easy (and you’ll sound four times more impressive talking about why you used them*).

Yearbook Marketing Ideas Backed By Psychology #1: Ask for help.

• Psychology Principle At Play: The Ben Franklin Effect
• Fancy Definition: “You grow to like people for whom you do nice things.”

Sure, you might be thinking, this principle makes sense. Of course we help people we like. If that’s you right now, go back and read that definition again. The Ben Franklin Effect actually says that you grow to like people because you do them a favor (not the more commonly thought of reverse). Weird, right? Here’s the thing, though: it’s been proven by psychologists. If you want to put this principle to use in your yearbook marketing, try this idea: Instead of asking someone to buy the yearbook, ask them to do something that will help you produce it. It doesn’t have to be a lot of help. It could be something small, like contributing a couple of photos from a field trip or asking an event participant for a quote to use in your coverage. Or it could be large, like coordinating an effort to get everyone from a specific grade to fill out a survey. The point isn’t so much the help you’re getting (though that’s a wonderful benefit) as it is the relationship you’re building. Do it enough times with enough people and you’ll be creating connections with a growing list of people who like you, your team, and the yearbook more than they did before (hard to believe that’s possible, we know). And that connection is the key. It’ll make your helpers more likely to buy a book.

Yearbook Marketing Ideas Backed By Psychology #2: Advertise how many students have bought the yearbook.

• Psychology Principle At Play: Informational Social Influence
• Fancy Definition: “You look to the behaviors of others who are also in the same or similar situation to see how they behave.”

It’s been said before that humans are pack animals. And the truth of that is apparent in a lot of different ways: Ever watch a movie just because you saw a number of your friends post about it on Facebook? Or check out a restaurant because you noticed it was always busy? It’s a phenomenon called informal social influence, or social proof. There are a bunch of different types, but the one we can all probably relate to best is “wisdom of the crowd.” If you want to visualize it, it’s basically the sign outside of every McDonald’s that reads, “Over X Billion Served” in action. “Wisdom of the crowd” practically forces you to tell yourself, “That many people can’t be wrong.” If you tell yourself that that many people can’t be wrong, then you’re already well on your way to recognizing the action as a good choice. And, when it comes to making a purchase, you just cleared a major hurdle. All thanks to social proof. For your yearbook marketing, you can use social proof in a few different ways. The easiest, though, is to start adding your sales numbers to posters and flyers after you’ve sold an impressive number of books. That many people can’t be wrong to buy a yearbook, can they? (Of course not.)

Yearbook Marketing Ideas Backed By Psychology #3: Keep the advertisements coming.

• Psychology Principle At Play: Mere Exposure Effect
• Fancy Definition: “The more often something is presented to people, the more they tend to like it.”

We can probably all agree that we like familiarity. It’s safe, it’s comfortable, it’s easier for the brain to process. The funny thing, though, is how much we seem to not like how we get to familiarity, especially when it comes to advertising (think of all the billboards and commercials you’ve seen like a million times). Since the 1960s, four different groups of psychologists have put the process of repeated, frequent exposure to the text to see if a psychological principle called the “mere exposure effect” would hold up. And you know what? It did. Every time. It doesn’t take a psychologist to figure out what that means for your yearbook marketing: Keep it up with the announcements, flyers, newsletter mentions, posters, and whatever other advertising tactics you have up your sleeve. To flip an idiom on its head, familiarity breeds fondness.

Yearbook Marketing Ideas Backed By Psychology #4: Invite everyone to your yearbook signing party.

• Psychology Principle At Play: Fear of Missing Out
• Fancy Definition: “Pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent.”

You’re familiar with the term “Keeping up with the Joneses,” right? Fear of missing out, or FOMO for short, is basically that. It’s just a new term for an old social anxiety. At the core, FOMO is the nerves you feel when you think everyone else is “in” on something cool—and that you’re not. Here’s how you market your yearbook using that psychological principle: Invite everyone in your school to your yearbook signing party. Under the FOMO principle, the fear of missing out on owning a book isn’t nearly as powerful as the fear of missing out on being part of a community where members get to have fun, sign each other’s yearbooks, and recall nearly forgotten stories from earlier in the year. It’s not just the yearbook you’re selling, it’s also the memories of laughing with friends and sharing a collective experience with a group of people. Of course, this marketing idea only works if you’ve got extra books to sell. When it comes right down to it, you sometimes need to get in the head of your customer. You can make that happen, no problem at all, if you understand a few bits of psychology and apply them to marketing tactics. That’s why, if you use these yearbook marketing ideas, everything will get twice as easy. (By the way: If you’re looking for even more, awesome yearbook marketing ideas backed by psychology principles, check out this amazing post from Buffer, which served as inspiration for this piece.)   *Impressiveness not guaranteed.